Patrick Fox: Cosmology in Mirror Twin Higgs and Neutrinos

Date

Time

Location

Wednesday

Oct. 4

2:00pm

726 Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar

Patrick Fox
Fermilab

Cosmology in Mirror Twin Higgs and Neutrinos

I will explore a simple solution to the cosmological challenges of the original Mirror Twin Higgs (MTH) model that leads to interesting implications for experiment. I will consider theories in which both the standard model and mirror neutrinos acquire masses through the familiar seesaw mechanism, but with a low right-handed neutrino mass scale of order a few GeV. In these νMTH models, the right-handed neutrinos leave the thermal bath while still relativistic. As the universe expands, these particles eventually become nonrelativistic, and come to dominate the energy density of the universe before decaying. Decays to standard model states are preferred, with the result that the visible sector is left at a higher temperature than the twin sector. Consequently the contribution of the twin sector to the radiation density in the early universe is suppressed, allowing the current bounds on this scenario to be satisfied. However, their effects may be discovered in future cosmic microwave background experiments, or upcoming experiments designed to probe the large scale structure of the universe.